* What does Air America 2.0 mean? For starters, it means that we have signed Lionel to host our 9am to noon hours. Lionel has been on WOR Radio and some 92 affiliates -- and is the #1 host in his time slot in NYC. Adding him to the AAR family is a major boost to our already strong line-up.

* Also, we're pleased to announce that Sam Seder will be staying with our Air America family to host a new program from 4-7pm on Sundays called "Seder on Sunday." The program will concentrate on two subjects that Sam has been outspoken and smart about from the start of AAR -- the networks and the netroots...specifically, the Sunday political talkfests and the blogosphere's take on America.

* MoveOn.Org and Air America will be co-hosting three "Virtual Town Halls" with the major Democratic presidential candidates, with the first one entirely about Iraq today, Tuesday, April 10. Obama, Clinton, Edwards, Richardson, Biden, Dodd and Kucinich will be answering questions from MoveOn members -- we'll be streaming it live 7:15-8:45 EST and rebroadcasting it to all our affiliates on Wednesday, 8-10pm EST. When you combine MoveOn's 3.2 million members and Air America's 2 1/2 million listeners – and add to that the topic of Iraq -- we expect an historic night in what promises to be a defining election.

* Air America celebrated our Third Anniversary this past Saturday, March 31, with a staff appreciation dinner at my home -- to honor the 60 folk who held this radio network together over the past 1000+ days, to thank all those who were there in the hard times and are now here for the coming good times.

* What good times, you may ask? To see a nice appraisal, read this article from Crain's, NYC's leading business magazine. The word is spreading that there's a new Air America in town...and in towns across the country.

As the TV pundits on the networks gab about the tens of millions of dollars raised by the top presidential candidates, what they don’t talk about is where that money is going: to their own networks.

Money is now considered the single most important factor in our electoral process. Ideas and issues take a back seat to the bottom line. This prostitution of our electoral process has one key culprit: television advertising.

Political advertising makes or breaks candidates, and it takes a huge amount of money to implement a national advertising strategy. Now more than 20 states are piling onto Feb. 5, 2008, as their primary day, including states like California and New York with large, expensive media markets. The early, deciding role of money and television advertising in determining who gets to run for president is secure.

The costs of running for federal office have been skyrocketing. More than $880 million was raised by the 2004 presidential campaigns. The 2008 election is expected to cost more than $1 billion. Sixty percent will be spent on advertising.

The citizens are the losers, and the broadcasters and elite political consultants are the winners. We ought to turn this around. The public owns the airwaves that are being used by the big corporate broadcasters. The broadcasters, like NBC, ABC and CBS, have an obligation to use those airwaves “in the public interest, convenience and necessity.” These profitable corporations take these public airwaves for free, then peddle them for exorbitant advertising rates.

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"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman